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PIONEER MIDDLE SCHOOL students Mike Beltz,
left, Jonathan Huber and Dane Simpson interview
World War II veteran Wally Hoffman while teacher
Tom Harron, right, looks on. The students have in-
terviewed a number of vets, including Sheltonian
Ken Fredson, as part of a World War II project.
Video project teaches Pioneer
students about World War II
By JEFF GREEN
History is coming alive in a most literal
way at Pioneer Middle School, where stu-
dents are busy interviewing veterans of
World War II.
That distant war is being revived for the
students and veterans alike. "l think you
need to know the cause and effect," one vet-
eran told the students. "(War) isn't all Hol-
lywood and heroes. It's a dirty job."
The World War II oral history project at
Pioneer Middle School involves formal in-
terviews by students of nearly 30 veterans.
It's part of a larger project involving several
other schools in Western Washington.
Students in Tom Harron's class at
Pioneer get ready for the interviews by con-
ducting research about the war, then devel-
op a series of questions for the veterans.
The interviews are videotaped and those
tapes will be available this spring to stu-
dents working on World War II-related
projects.
"THE WORLD WAS totally involved in
World War II. There was no place to hide,"
said Wally Hoffman, an Olympia resident
who flew 35 missions over Germany at the
controls of a B-17 bomber.
Hoffman was a 21-year-old student at
what is now Washington State University
when he entered the service.
"All of us felt we were going to have to
take some overt action to preserve our way
of life," he said. "It wasn't necessarily wav-
ing the flag. It was a job that had to be
done "
Hoffman had his private pilot's license
when he left college to become an aviation
cadet. That trip took him from Washington
to towns called Sweetwater and Victoria in
Texas; to Enid, Oklahoma; and, finally, to
Tampa, Florida, before he flew to England.
One week, classes started at 7 a.m. and
,the trainees flew in the afternoon. The next
week, that schedule was reversed, Hoffman
remembered. From 8 to 11 a.m., there was
continuous physical training and the men
were granted a 10-minute break every
hour.
"At that time, the B-17 was one of the
largest airplanes in the world, he told the
students. "It looked immense. You won-
dered how on earth you were going to get it
off the ground."
HOFFMAN AND HIS crew flew their
bomber to Scotland, landing near Glasgow.
He recalled the pubs were very friendly
places.
The friendly atmosphere quickly faded
once the men began flying missions over
all-too-hostile Germany. Flashlights shin-
ing in their eyes woke them at 2 a.m. '`you
were always short of sleep," he said. "Our
primary objective was to sleep."
By 3:30 or 4 a.m., the weary flyers sat
down for a breakfast that was hard to swal-
low. Two fried eggs staring you in the face
at that time of morning was not a welcome
sight, he told his listeners.
"Fear was the basic thing," he said. The
life expectancy of the bomber crews was
just three and a half missions.
"We lost more men in the Eighth Air
Force than they did in the Vietnam War,"
Hoffman explained. "You reach a point
where either your fear conquers you or you
conquer it."
THE LONGEST time in the world for
the crews was called the initial point-to-tar-
get when they lined up for their bombing
runs. Flak came at them from German anti-
aircraft batteries below. German fighter
planes attacked the bombers from all an-
gles. "A fighter firing at you looks like it's
winking at you," Hoffman said.
The losses were staggering, tIoffman re-
members looking at the empty beds of crew-
men who didn't return from their missions.
He thought: Those guys were here yesterday
doing the same things I am doing today.
"There was a real close relationship be-
tween crews," he said. "You ate together
and did everything together. There was no
rank in the air."
The experience of seeing so many flam-
ing planes, parachutes, contrails, explo-
sions, smoke and charred bodies left him
numb and fatalistic. "You reach the point,
psychologically, of either dropping off the
deep end or you keep going," he said.
THE IDEA OF DYING doesn't bother
him, he said, adding that even today, Air
Force veterans have no fear of death. "I
think my attitude is no different from those
people that were in combat," Hoffman said,
speaking of those involved in the ground
battles.
Staring death in the face has paid some
dividends for him. Diagnosed with cancer in
(Please turn to page 2.)
Group pursuing home rule
charter system for county
A group of Mason County resi-
dents has formed a steering
committee to pursue the home
rule charter system of govern-
ment for the county. The next
meeting will be held at 7 p.m.
Thursday, February 25, at the
Mary Theler Community Center
on Highway 3 in Belfair.
Many counties in the state and
across the nation have changed
from the three-commissioner
system to the home rule charter
form, according to Bill Quigley,
a Belfair resident who ran for
county commissioner.
"Home rule charter is a county
charter, drafted by citizens of the
county called 'freeholders' who
are elected by the citizens of the
county,", Quigley explained.
"The only function of the elected
freeholders is to draft the charter
and present it to the county com-
missioners. The commissioners
submit the charter for approval
by vote."
Quigley maintains the home
rule charter system provides for
greater citizen input. The county
commission would be composed
of five to seven citizens, "not ca-
reer politicians," he adds.
"Home rule is not about you or I -
whether we agree or disagree on
a specific issue. It is about re-
turning the power of government
back to the citizens it was intend-
ed to serve."
The commissioners would
handle only legislative func-
tions of the government, he notes,
and administrative functions
could be handled day-by-day by a
professional manager.
The first step in the process is
to acquire the signatures of at
least 10 percent of the voters reg-
istered in the last general elec-
tion, Quigley says. More infor-
mation about the charter system
will be available at next Thurs-
day's meeting in Belfair.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlllllllll
On the inside
Births .................................... 12
Classifieds ........................... 24
Community Calendar ......... 7
Crossword ........................... 27
Entertainment, Dining ..... 18
Health Journal .................. 15
Journal of Record .............. 11
Obituaries ............................ 12
Opinions, Letters .................. 4
Sports ................................... 20
Tides ..................................... 28
Weather ................................ 28
IIIIIIIIRIIIIIIIIIIIIIlUUlIIIIIIIlUlIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlUlIIIIIII
College's Alderbrook funding
has been somewhat depleted
Friends of Olympic College
Shelton heard some good news
and some not-so-great news when
Michael Connolly, dean of the
Olympic College Business Office,
met with the group last Thursday
on the Shelton campus.
Yes, Connolly told the group,
money for building a library on
the Shelton campus from the es-
tate of the late Alderbrook devel-
oper Wesley Johnson is forthcom-
ing, possibly as soon as six
months from now.
But no, it won't be anything
like the multi-million-dollar fig.
ure initially discussed. The popu-
lar Hood Canal resort languished
on the market and eventually
sold for about half what onlookers
had anticipated, Connolly said.
He estimated that the college will
realize somewhere between $1.3
and $1.7 million after expenses.
THE COLLEGE'S share of
the proceeds of the sale of John-
son's property in a disputed lega-
cy has been reduced by over a
qarter of a million dollars in at-
torney fees, Connolly said. The
figure available for new construc-
t
(Please turn to page 9.)
Slide menacing
Lilliwaup homes
A mud slide that hit last
Thursday one mile north of Lilli-
waup along Highway 101 threat-
ens to undermine three houses
and two trailers, according to a
Mason County Building Depart-
ment official.
Residents of two of the houses
have been notified not to occupy
them, said Dana Herren of the
building department. He said the
department is concerned for their
safety and for the safety of the
buildings. The third house and
trailers are summer residences
and were unoccupied.
"It's really a wait-and-see game
to see what happens next," Her-
ren told The Journal. The topsoil
on a layer of clay was saturated
by heavy rains and began moving
along a 500-foot swath and is still
moving, he said. There's a series
of fractures in the ground in that:
area that measure up to eiIhl
inches deep "No one is really
sure what's underneath," ad(te¢l
Herren.
Paula Pope is one of the rein
dents forced out by tile slide. She
and her husband, currently w()rk-
ing in Saudi Arabia, have lived cm
the hillside for nearly a year. She
said the slide took out her power
and phone lines and dropped part
of the driveway to her house some
six feet.
"IT LOOKS I,IKE everythinr.
around it (the house) is just slid-
ing down the hill," Pope said, add.
ing that the house so far remains
undamaged,
Her landlady, Gloria Swanson,
also was fiJrced out of her house,
h)cated down the hill from Pope's
residence. Pope said Mrs Swan-
son wa stayig with her daugh-
t,r i 1,%rks f,)r the time being.
I'¢W' " tayiq, with a friend in
] ;11"1" 5'
N'ither of them wanted to
l(,',ve, Pop(! added. "They were
l.llin}t us, 'Get out,' " she said, re-
[',,rrin; to county officials. Last
weekend Lilliwaup residents
came t( l'ope's tmme, packed up
,v(:>rytl,ing in the house and put
the behmgings in storage tbr her.
She i on crutches from a recent
surgor' ()I1 ol/e of her legs and
said she h',d been home from the
hospit:d only five days when the
s} ide occurred.
Pope said she doesn't know
what sh,'s going to do about
hnising but will stay with her
fri(md until her husband returns.
()no lhinv seems certain: The
(Please turn to page 3.)
/,/
i:il
Thursday, February 18, 1999 113th Year - Number 7 3 Sections - 32 Pages 50 Cents
Fired police officer
to face gun charge
A former Shelton Police De-
partment officer was in Mason
County Superior Court last week
facing a charge of his own.
Humberto DelaCruz, 31, of 320
21st Avenue SW, Olympia, was
identified before Judge James
Sawyer with being an alien in
possession of a firearm. The guns
in question were carried in the
line of duty during his tenure as a
police officer.
Deputy Prosecutor Reinhold
Schuetz filed the charge after the
Shelton Police Department noti-
fied the prosecutor's office that
DelaCruz allegedly failed to let
the department know he wasn't a
U.S. citizen when he was hired as
a reserve officer.
THE POLICE department
later hired DelaCruz as a regular
officer. He is appealing his dis-
missal last December to the city
civil service commission Shelton
Police Lieutenant Ken Dobie de-
clined comment on the matter.
In court last Friday with the
defendant, retained attorney
John Sinclair entered a motion to
dismiss the case based on the sta-
tute of limitations and waived his
client's arraignment until the res-
olution of his motion. He contend-
ed that the time for filing on the
charge had expired.
Deputy Prosecutor Schuetz cit-
ed a tenure statute, maintaining
that the offense was ongoing for
the duration of the time that
DelaCruz served as an officer and
carried a firearm.
Information in the file was pro-
vided by agent Adam Levine of
the Immigration and Naturaliza-
tion division of the U.S. Depart-
ment of Justice. That information
alleges that DelaCruz was born in
Mexico and was granted tempo-
rary residence in the U.S. on 1)e-
cember 4, 1989. He became a law-
ful resident, but not a citizen, on
March 29, 1991, according to
documents in the case.
HE GO'][' A job as a reserve of-
ricer with the Shelton Police I)e-
partment on May 2, 1992 after tip
ing an application that falsely
claimed U.S. citizenship, accord-
ing to court papers. In September
of 1994 the Shelton Police l)e-
partment gave him a Glock
handgun to be carried on duty,
according to court papers. Two
months later he applied for U.S.
citizenship and stated in official
papers that he was a Mexican cit-
izen.
He was hired as a police officer
in 1995. Soon after being sworn in
he wrote a memorandum to Dobie
indicating that his off-duty fire-
arm would be a .45 caliber
Springfield handgun, according to
court papers. He was naturalized
and admitted to the U.S. as a citi-
zen on January 31, 1996.
A check of records determined
that he never applied for an alien
firearms license for either the
Glock or the Springfield, accord-
ing to court papers.
Sinclair claims in a motion tbr
dismissal that the clock started
running on the three-year statute
of limitations the day after Dela•
Cruz was made a U.S. citizen. By
Sinclair's logic, January 31 of this
year was the last date to t'ile
charges in this case. Charges
were filed on February 9 of this
year,
SINCLAIR SAID that he
would also move for a change of
venue, indicating that in the
course of his client:'s employment
with the police department Dela-
Cruz had worked witt the prose-
cutor's oMce and testified before
both Mason County Superior
"I believe that establishesa 'f
mmtlict of interest," he explained.
The motions are scheduled for
arglimelt; before the court on
March 25•
I)ela(;ruz is claiming he is a
victim ot' discrimination, Sinclair
said. In addition, Sinclair said the
City of Shelten is an accomplice
to the we'q)ons charge filed
against his client.
"Technically that's true," Sin-
clair said. "They handed him a
gull."
1)elaCruz currently works as a
stor, security officer, Sinclair
said.
DON DANIEl,, an Olympia
attorney representing the Shelt0n
Police Department, said DelaCru
was t'ired after failing to respond
to cotrtJssued subpoenas and for
failing to return to court for a sec-
ond day of testimony aler he was
ordered to do so by a judge. Dela-
Cruz misrepresented the reasons
why he didn't return to court,
l)aniel said.
As tbr DelaCruz's claim he was
discriminated against, Daniel
c(mlmented, "Our investigation of
that matter has turned up no evi-
dence to support those allega-
tions. I can assure you there has
been no discri ruination or any dis-
criminatory conduct toward him
as he alleges."
The' civil service commission
hearing on l)eJaCruz's appeal of
his termination is sch(:'duled for
March 2 and 3, Daniel said.
Woman admits giving
man fatal heroin shot
With a pool of potential jurors
waiting in the hall, Mason Coun-
ty's first case of homicide by con-
trolled substance was resolved
with a change of plea in superior
court last Thursday.
Vivianne Sue Briley, 46, of 120
West Birch Street, Shelton, en-
tered the change of plea with the
aid of attorney Ron Sergi in a
plea-bargain agreement with the
state. Deputy Prosecutor Rein-
hold Schuetz orally amended the
charges against her to conspiracy
to commit controlled-substance
homicide.
Schuetz said the amended
charge, an unranked offense in
terms of the state's standard sen-
tencing guidelines, was justit'ied
in that an individual who deliv
ered the drug that Briley injected
for the victim was also a particip-
ant in the death of Mark Ewing.
Ewing died of a heroin overdose
in early November of' 1998 at Bri-
ley's residence
Briley told Mason County Su-
perior Court Judge James Sawyer
in her plea that she injected Ew-
ing, at his direction, with the
drug late on November 1 and that
he was found dead the next morn-
ing.
Schuetz told the court that Bri-
Icy, who said at Thursday's pro-
ceedings that she has a bachelor's
degree in business administra-
tion, was also using drugs at the
tram She has provided clean uri-
nalysis-test results to the court
sin(: bd'ore Christmas, and
Ju(l,., Sawyer commended the
(:hanq.{e.
lie also acknowledged the
validity of Schuetz's request that
Brih,y be warned that she faces
stone tough times staying drug-
free in the days to come. She
faces prison, having bargained tbr
a stipulated 20-1nonth sentence,
and she's due for sentencing three
(lays after her 47th birthday.
Judge Sawyer ordered the
preparation of a presentence in,
vestigation when he set Brilefa
sentencing tbr March 25,
PIONEER MIDDLE SCHOOL students Mike Beltz,
left, Jonathan Huber and Dane Simpson interview
World War II veteran Wally Hoffman while teacher
Tom Harron, right, looks on. The students have in-
terviewed a number of vets, including Sheltonian
Ken Fredson, as part of a World War II project.
Video project teaches Pioneer
students about World War II
By JEFF GREEN
History is coming alive in a most literal
way at Pioneer Middle School, where stu-
dents are busy interviewing veterans of
World War II.
That distant war is being revived for the
students and veterans alike. "l think you
need to know the cause and effect," one vet-
eran told the students. "(War) isn't all Hol-
lywood and heroes. It's a dirty job."
The World War II oral history project at
Pioneer Middle School involves formal in-
terviews by students of nearly 30 veterans.
It's part of a larger project involving several
other schools in Western Washington.
Students in Tom Harron's class at
Pioneer get ready for the interviews by con-
ducting research about the war, then devel-
op a series of questions for the veterans.
The interviews are videotaped and those
tapes will be available this spring to stu-
dents working on World War II-related
projects.
"THE WORLD WAS totally involved in
World War II. There was no place to hide,"
said Wally Hoffman, an Olympia resident
who flew 35 missions over Germany at the
controls of a B-17 bomber.
Hoffman was a 21-year-old student at
what is now Washington State University
when he entered the service.
"All of us felt we were going to have to
take some overt action to preserve our way
of life," he said. "It wasn't necessarily wav-
ing the flag. It was a job that had to be
done "
Hoffman had his private pilot's license
when he left college to become an aviation
cadet. That trip took him from Washington
to towns called Sweetwater and Victoria in
Texas; to Enid, Oklahoma; and, finally, to
Tampa, Florida, before he flew to England.
One week, classes started at 7 a.m. and
,the trainees flew in the afternoon. The next
week, that schedule was reversed, Hoffman
remembered. From 8 to 11 a.m., there was
continuous physical training and the men
were granted a 10-minute break every
hour.
"At that time, the B-17 was one of the
largest airplanes in the world, he told the
students. "It looked immense. You won-
dered how on earth you were going to get it
off the ground."
HOFFMAN AND HIS crew flew their
bomber to Scotland, landing near Glasgow.
He recalled the pubs were very friendly
places.
The friendly atmosphere quickly faded
once the men began flying missions over
all-too-hostile Germany. Flashlights shin-
ing in their eyes woke them at 2 a.m. '`you
were always short of sleep," he said. "Our
primary objective was to sleep."
By 3:30 or 4 a.m., the weary flyers sat
down for a breakfast that was hard to swal-
low. Two fried eggs staring you in the face
at that time of morning was not a welcome
sight, he told his listeners.
"Fear was the basic thing," he said. The
life expectancy of the bomber crews was
just three and a half missions.
"We lost more men in the Eighth Air
Force than they did in the Vietnam War,"
Hoffman explained. "You reach a point
where either your fear conquers you or you
conquer it."
THE LONGEST time in the world for
the crews was called the initial point-to-tar-
get when they lined up for their bombing
runs. Flak came at them from German anti-
aircraft batteries below. German fighter
planes attacked the bombers from all an-
gles. "A fighter firing at you looks like it's
winking at you," Hoffman said.
The losses were staggering, tIoffman re-
members looking at the empty beds of crew-
men who didn't return from their missions.
He thought: Those guys were here yesterday
doing the same things I am doing today.
"There was a real close relationship be-
tween crews," he said. "You ate together
and did everything together. There was no
rank in the air."
The experience of seeing so many flam-
ing planes, parachutes, contrails, explo-
sions, smoke and charred bodies left him
numb and fatalistic. "You reach the point,
psychologically, of either dropping off the
deep end or you keep going," he said.
THE IDEA OF DYING doesn't bother
him, he said, adding that even today, Air
Force veterans have no fear of death. "I
think my attitude is no different from those
people that were in combat," Hoffman said,
speaking of those involved in the ground
battles.
Staring death in the face has paid some
dividends for him. Diagnosed with cancer in
(Please turn to page 2.)
Group pursuing home rule
charter system for county
A group of Mason County resi-
dents has formed a steering
committee to pursue the home
rule charter system of govern-
ment for the county. The next
meeting will be held at 7 p.m.
Thursday, February 25, at the
Mary Theler Community Center
on Highway 3 in Belfair.
Many counties in the state and
across the nation have changed
from the three-commissioner
system to the home rule charter
form, according to Bill Quigley,
a Belfair resident who ran for
county commissioner.
"Home rule charter is a county
charter, drafted by citizens of the
county called 'freeholders' who
are elected by the citizens of the
county,", Quigley explained.
"The only function of the elected
freeholders is to draft the charter
and present it to the county com-
missioners. The commissioners
submit the charter for approval
by vote."
Quigley maintains the home
rule charter system provides for
greater citizen input. The county
commission would be composed
of five to seven citizens, "not ca-
reer politicians," he adds.
"Home rule is not about you or I -
whether we agree or disagree on
a specific issue. It is about re-
turning the power of government
back to the citizens it was intend-
ed to serve."
The commissioners would
handle only legislative func-
tions of the government, he notes,
and administrative functions
could be handled day-by-day by a
professional manager.
The first step in the process is
to acquire the signatures of at
least 10 percent of the voters reg-
istered in the last general elec-
tion, Quigley says. More infor-
mation about the charter system
will be available at next Thurs-
day's meeting in Belfair.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlllllllll
On the inside
Births .................................... 12
Classifieds ........................... 24
Community Calendar ......... 7
Crossword ........................... 27
Entertainment, Dining ..... 18
Health Journal .................. 15
Journal of Record .............. 11
Obituaries ............................ 12
Opinions, Letters .................. 4
Sports ................................... 20
Tides ..................................... 28
Weather ................................ 28
IIIIIIIIRIIIIIIIIIIIIIlUUlIIIIIIIlUlIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlUlIIIIIII
College's Alderbrook funding
has been somewhat depleted
Friends of Olympic College
Shelton heard some good news
and some not-so-great news when
Michael Connolly, dean of the
Olympic College Business Office,
met with the group last Thursday
on the Shelton campus.
Yes, Connolly told the group,
money for building a library on
the Shelton campus from the es-
tate of the late Alderbrook devel-
oper Wesley Johnson is forthcom-
ing, possibly as soon as six
months from now.
But no, it won't be anything
like the multi-million-dollar fig.
ure initially discussed. The popu-
lar Hood Canal resort languished
on the market and eventually
sold for about half what onlookers
had anticipated, Connolly said.
He estimated that the college will
realize somewhere between $1.3
and $1.7 million after expenses.
THE COLLEGE'S share of
the proceeds of the sale of John-
son's property in a disputed lega-
cy has been reduced by over a
qarter of a million dollars in at-
torney fees, Connolly said. The
figure available for new construc-
t
(Please turn to page 9.)
Slide menacing
Lilliwaup homes
A mud slide that hit last
Thursday one mile north of Lilli-
waup along Highway 101 threat-
ens to undermine three houses
and two trailers, according to a
Mason County Building Depart-
ment official.
Residents of two of the houses
have been notified not to occupy
them, said Dana Herren of the
building department. He said the
department is concerned for their
safety and for the safety of the
buildings. The third house and
trailers are summer residences
and were unoccupied.
"It's really a wait-and-see game
to see what happens next," Her-
ren told The Journal. The topsoil
on a layer of clay was saturated
by heavy rains and began moving
along a 500-foot swath and is still
moving, he said. There's a series
of fractures in the ground in that:
area that measure up to eiIhl
inches deep "No one is really
sure what's underneath," ad(te¢l
Herren.
Paula Pope is one of the rein
dents forced out by tile slide. She
and her husband, currently w()rk-
ing in Saudi Arabia, have lived cm
the hillside for nearly a year. She
said the slide took out her power
and phone lines and dropped part
of the driveway to her house some
six feet.
"IT LOOKS I,IKE everythinr.
around it (the house) is just slid-
ing down the hill," Pope said, add.
ing that the house so far remains
undamaged,
Her landlady, Gloria Swanson,
also was fiJrced out of her house,
h)cated down the hill from Pope's
residence. Pope said Mrs Swan-
son wa stayig with her daugh-
t,r i 1,%rks f,)r the time being.
I'¢W' " tayiq, with a friend in
] ;11"1" 5'
N'ither of them wanted to
l(,',ve, Pop(! added. "They were
l.llin}t us, 'Get out,' " she said, re-
[',,rrin; to county officials. Last
weekend Lilliwaup residents
came t( l'ope's tmme, packed up
,v(:>rytl,ing in the house and put
the behmgings in storage tbr her.
She i on crutches from a recent
surgor' ()I1 ol/e of her legs and
said she h',d been home from the
hospit:d only five days when the
s} ide occurred.
Pope said she doesn't know
what sh,'s going to do about
hnising but will stay with her
fri(md until her husband returns.
()no lhinv seems certain: The
(Please turn to page 3.)
/,/
i:il
Thursday, February 18, 1999 113th Year - Number 7 3 Sections - 32 Pages 50 Cents
Fired police officer
to face gun charge
A former Shelton Police De-
partment officer was in Mason
County Superior Court last week
facing a charge of his own.
Humberto DelaCruz, 31, of 320
21st Avenue SW, Olympia, was
identified before Judge James
Sawyer with being an alien in
possession of a firearm. The guns
in question were carried in the
line of duty during his tenure as a
police officer.
Deputy Prosecutor Reinhold
Schuetz filed the charge after the
Shelton Police Department noti-
fied the prosecutor's office that
DelaCruz allegedly failed to let
the department know he wasn't a
U.S. citizen when he was hired as
a reserve officer.
THE POLICE department
later hired DelaCruz as a regular
officer. He is appealing his dis-
missal last December to the city
civil service commission Shelton
Police Lieutenant Ken Dobie de-
clined comment on the matter.
In court last Friday with the
defendant, retained attorney
John Sinclair entered a motion to
dismiss the case based on the sta-
tute of limitations and waived his
client's arraignment until the res-
olution of his motion. He contend-
ed that the time for filing on the
charge had expired.
Deputy Prosecutor Schuetz cit-
ed a tenure statute, maintaining
that the offense was ongoing for
the duration of the time that
DelaCruz served as an officer and
carried a firearm.
Information in the file was pro-
vided by agent Adam Levine of
the Immigration and Naturaliza-
tion division of the U.S. Depart-
ment of Justice. That information
alleges that DelaCruz was born in
Mexico and was granted tempo-
rary residence in the U.S. on 1)e-
cember 4, 1989. He became a law-
ful resident, but not a citizen, on
March 29, 1991, according to
documents in the case.
HE GO'][' A job as a reserve of-
ricer with the Shelton Police I)e-
partment on May 2, 1992 after tip
ing an application that falsely
claimed U.S. citizenship, accord-
ing to court papers. In September
of 1994 the Shelton Police l)e-
partment gave him a Glock
handgun to be carried on duty,
according to court papers. Two
months later he applied for U.S.
citizenship and stated in official
papers that he was a Mexican cit-
izen.
He was hired as a police officer
in 1995. Soon after being sworn in
he wrote a memorandum to Dobie
indicating that his off-duty fire-
arm would be a .45 caliber
Springfield handgun, according to
court papers. He was naturalized
and admitted to the U.S. as a citi-
zen on January 31, 1996.
A check of records determined
that he never applied for an alien
firearms license for either the
Glock or the Springfield, accord-
ing to court papers.
Sinclair claims in a motion tbr
dismissal that the clock started
running on the three-year statute
of limitations the day after Dela•
Cruz was made a U.S. citizen. By
Sinclair's logic, January 31 of this
year was the last date to t'ile
charges in this case. Charges
were filed on February 9 of this
year,
SINCLAIR SAID that he
would also move for a change of
venue, indicating that in the
course of his client:'s employment
with the police department Dela-
Cruz had worked witt the prose-
cutor's oMce and testified before
both Mason County Superior
"I believe that establishesa 'f
mmtlict of interest," he explained.
The motions are scheduled for
arglimelt; before the court on
March 25•
I)ela(;ruz is claiming he is a
victim ot' discrimination, Sinclair
said. In addition, Sinclair said the
City of Shelten is an accomplice
to the we'q)ons charge filed
against his client.
"Technically that's true," Sin-
clair said. "They handed him a
gull."
1)elaCruz currently works as a
stor, security officer, Sinclair
said.
DON DANIEl,, an Olympia
attorney representing the Shelt0n
Police Department, said DelaCru
was t'ired after failing to respond
to cotrtJssued subpoenas and for
failing to return to court for a sec-
ond day of testimony aler he was
ordered to do so by a judge. Dela-
Cruz misrepresented the reasons
why he didn't return to court,
l)aniel said.
As tbr DelaCruz's claim he was
discriminated against, Daniel
c(mlmented, "Our investigation of
that matter has turned up no evi-
dence to support those allega-
tions. I can assure you there has
been no discri ruination or any dis-
criminatory conduct toward him
as he alleges."
The' civil service commission
hearing on l)eJaCruz's appeal of
his termination is sch(:'duled for
March 2 and 3, Daniel said.
Woman admits giving
man fatal heroin shot
With a pool of potential jurors
waiting in the hall, Mason Coun-
ty's first case of homicide by con-
trolled substance was resolved
with a change of plea in superior
court last Thursday.
Vivianne Sue Briley, 46, of 120
West Birch Street, Shelton, en-
tered the change of plea with the
aid of attorney Ron Sergi in a
plea-bargain agreement with the
state. Deputy Prosecutor Rein-
hold Schuetz orally amended the
charges against her to conspiracy
to commit controlled-substance
homicide.
Schuetz said the amended
charge, an unranked offense in
terms of the state's standard sen-
tencing guidelines, was justit'ied
in that an individual who deliv
ered the drug that Briley injected
for the victim was also a particip-
ant in the death of Mark Ewing.
Ewing died of a heroin overdose
in early November of' 1998 at Bri-
ley's residence
Briley told Mason County Su-
perior Court Judge James Sawyer
in her plea that she injected Ew-
ing, at his direction, with the
drug late on November 1 and that
he was found dead the next morn-
ing.
Schuetz told the court that Bri-
Icy, who said at Thursday's pro-
ceedings that she has a bachelor's
degree in business administra-
tion, was also using drugs at the
tram She has provided clean uri-
nalysis-test results to the court
sin(: bd'ore Christmas, and
Ju(l,., Sawyer commended the
(:hanq.{e.
lie also acknowledged the
validity of Schuetz's request that
Brih,y be warned that she faces
stone tough times staying drug-
free in the days to come. She
faces prison, having bargained tbr
a stipulated 20-1nonth sentence,
and she's due for sentencing three
(lays after her 47th birthday.
Judge Sawyer ordered the
preparation of a presentence in,
vestigation when he set Brilefa
sentencing tbr March 25,